Jayne M.

Tumblr

2010-04-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

Posting bits and pieces to Tumblr is so much quicker and easier then Blogger. They provide a link for your favourites bar and anything you want to share is just a click or two away. Reblogging stuff is incredibly easy too. It's just so easy (and I'm a firm believer in K.I.S.S.). I don't want to leave Blogger though so I'll probably keep Tumblr for day-to-day stuff and just add bits I want to save here.

Recent Stuff:

3 New Kiva Loans arranged:
Song Sileat’s Group
Genesia Jacob Group
Ayawa Tengue

That brings the Nottinghamshire Team up to $1875. Not bad for a team of 6 :)

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Download the new Music Business Handbook from Berkleemusic.com

I’ve not downloaded it so I don’t know if it’s any good but it’s from Berklee and it’s free :)

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Cast and Crew of "The Gay Man's Guide" - an absolutely lovely bunch!

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Beliefnet Questionnaire

Religions I match (over 90%) Liberal Quakers, Unitarian Universalism, Mahayana Buddhism and Neo-Paganism…

http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Quizzes/BeliefOMatic.aspx

An odd bunch to look into, covering 3 religions. Hmmm....

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World Theatre Day 2010...

I was busy with the Lace Market Theatres’ Youth Group, doing the Sound for ‘The Musicians’ and ‘The Village Hall’. You can see some photos of the show here.

Dame Judi Dench - 2010 Message
“World Theatre Day is an opportunity to celebrate Theatre in all its myriad forms. Theatre is a source of entertainment and inspiration and has the ability to unify the many diverse cultures and peoples that exist throughout the world. But theatre is more than that and also provides opportunities to educate and inform.
Theatre is performed throughout the world and not always in a traditional theatre setting. Performances can occur in a small village in Africa, next to a mountain in Armenia, on a tiny island in the Pacific. All it needs is a space and an audience. Theatre has the ability to make us smile, to make us cry, but should also make us think and reflect.
Theatre comes about through team work. Actors are the people who are seen, but there is an amazing set of people who are not seen. They are equally as important as the actors and their differing and specialist skills make it possible for a production to take place. They too must share in any triumphs and successes that may hopefully occur.
March 27 is always the official World Theatre Day. In many ways every day should be considered a theatre day, as we have a responsibility to continue the tradition to entertain, to educate and to enlighten our audiences, without whom we couldn’t exist.”

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I find this video quite disturbing...

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I've found my old Blip.fm profile.I've hooked it up to my LiveJournal account as I don't use it for anything.

The Lovely Bones

2010-03-17T15:27:00.000-07:00

I had no real interest in watching this film until I saw this video here (Facebook, can't embed :( ). It uses one of Ellie Williams songs from "Unseen" and really is a very beautiful combination. I still won't check the film out at the cinema, but it's on my list to rent to watch at home now.

I'm on a Horse, with added Lensflare.

2010-03-17T14:55:00.000-07:00

I think I clicked on this video from Buzzfeed, not knowing what it was I was about to watch. I loved it :)

I hadn't realised Old Spice make amusing adverts (I'm not exactly in the target demographic ;) but it's worth a nose round their YouTube Channel when you have a spare 20 minutes.

This video has nothing to do with Old SPice, it's how the recent Star Trek should have ended ;)

Gentle Music Videos

2010-03-17T14:35:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling rather despondent recently. Being unemployed when I don't want to be has been getting me down.

I like the gentleness in these songs:

Not quite as gentle but still very beautiful. It's my favourite track from Radaid's Album "L'Intent".

Squidoo Update

2010-03-03T14:43:00.000-08:00

Not really been in the blogging mood recently but thought it was time to write about a few things.

Squidoo - Only 2 new lenses recently. They were ones I started ages ago but never got round to finishing.
Lunic - A rock band I like from Sellaband. A bit different from the mainstream as it's fronted by a female violinist.
Nottingham Theatre - Just an overview of the main theatres for tourists / new people to Nottingham.

My top few lenses generally make about $0.15 a month (I have a bunch that make zilch). I've been lucky the last two months to have a lense hit the next tier up and receive just over $3.00 for it. I've got 32 lenses up and running, and I hope to hit 50 by the end of the year.

The Sixty One and Stereofame

2010-01-24T07:36:00.000-08:00

My reaction to TheSixtyOne's "improvements"

T61 used to be a great place to find new music. They've completely redesigned it and it's passionate community is understandable upset. There was no warning on what was about to happen or that many basic features that were used by the community would be lost.

The founders of T61 have never liked the community or the fact that they won't behave exactly as they want them to. Their customer service has always sucked but the website and community made up for it. The new website has taken away a lot of communication channels. The founders have used the bullshit excuse of wanting the conversation to be based solely on the music. So stop using T61 to build friendships or for dropping on to profiles to say hi. Imagine if a larger network like FB or Myspace tried to dictate what you could talk about.

The new interface is over-designed and ignoring basic conventions for the sake of ignoring convention (i.e. Designers trying way to hard to be 'cool' and 'edgy' and forgetting that the best Designers make things a pleasure to use). Before the UI was simple and straightforward, maybe a bit dull but it actually worked. This new one is incredibly claustrophobic in comparison and it feels like it's trying to control what I listen to and experience whereas the old site I could easily wander around, checking out whatever caught my eye/ear.

With all the fuss, T61 is attracting new users who find it 'pretty' and think it's a wonderful site for new music. I just find it a shame that they don't understand what's been lost and how much better the previous incarnation was :(

To replace TheSixtyOne, I've been looking at Stereofame instead. I didn't like it as much as the old T61 site, but compared to the new one, it's amazing.

I'm not sure if the community is as good but there's some great music on the site and it's easy to navigate around. When I started on T61, I signed up with a bunch of other Sellabandians which made life easier. SF is growing on me though.

They also give you some nice widgets to play with as a listener/'label':

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Beyond the Pole - Trailer

2010-01-24T06:23:00.000-08:00

This trailer looks like so much fun :)

It stars : Rhys Thomas (Fast Show), Stephen Mangan (Green Wing), Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood), Helen Baxendale (Cold Feet) and Mark Benton (Land Girls).
They've asked for fans to join their Facebook Page as they told a distributor that they would have 10,000 fans then next time he looked...

2 Old Profiles

2010-01-11T15:16:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that stuff.

I've found a couple of old profiles recently on my usual trawl around the internet.

Everyclick - The Charity Search Engine. It splits the revenue generated with UK Charities. You can nominate a particular charity or just donate to the general pot. If you sign up for a profile, you can keep track of how much you have raised. I'd actually downloaded the toolbar originally and occasionally used it. Without realising it, I'd generated £2.99 for the Lace Market Theatre Trust. I set up a group page on Wednesday so the nicer/cleaner URL can be used to publicise it (http://www.everyclick.com/lacemarkettheatre/). The search engine has been improved since the first time I found it and you can now do basic ebay searches. It's ok if you know what you're looking for, but useless for random browsing. I have the Everyclick Group Page bookmarked now and I've raised another £0.71 simply by trying Everyclick before Google. You can use Everyclick with any UK Charity, so it's worth a look around and it's a free and easy way to raise funds.

FreeFivers - Cashback website. There are loads of cashback sites knocking about and for a while I used FreeFivers. They're legit and sent me cheques when I reached the threshold. I made a couple of big purchases through them and ended up with £96.35 being paid to me during 06/07. I intend to start using them again as I occasionally buy things from Waterstones and Play.com. I've hopefully started a Magazine Subscription through them so I'll wait and see if that gets approved. They now also offer Cashback in the offline world too. Only a couple of shops but it includes Cineworld which will be useful when I renew my Unlimited Card.

Theatre Review: Festen - Lace Market Theatre

2009-12-11T08:46:00.000-08:00

I first saw 'Festen' several years ago when it toured to the Theatre Royal in Nottingham. I didn't really know what it was about and I can't remember why I even want to watch. I was blown away by it. I still consider it one of the top shows I've ever seen.

Festen means 'celebration' in Danish. The play is staged around a 60th Birthday Dinner Party for the Patriarch of a family. The traditional speeches are held which reveal some shocking revelations.

When I heard that the Lace Market Theatre had gained the rights to perform it, I was both excited and worried at the same time. Straight away the question of how you stage it came to mind. A bedroom needs to transform into a dining room. Mark James and John Hunt have managed to create an inventive set that does the job well. That particular scene change is prehaps longer then you would normally expect, but I didn't mind watching the tables be set.

There are a couple of places where the Cast eat and not a lot is said or happens. I don't find watching people eat all that interesting, and I have to be honest, if I wasn't in the front row where the cast could potentially see me, I'd have been reading my programme at that point. I suspect it's a love it / hate it moment with some audience members enjoying it because it's rarely done.

'Festen' is an ensemble piece, and the cast is outstanding. Overall, it's a stunning and ambitious production which the Lace Market Theatre has pulled off expertly.

'Festen' on Theatricalia.

Ellie WIlliams - Squidoo

2009-11-22T15:54:00.000-08:00

A new lense for Ellie Williams, a wonderful UK Singer-Songwriter.

Her first single, 'Fin's Song' is being used to raise funds for the NSPCC. You can buy it on Amazon or iTunes.

Ellie Williams

Film Review: Love is the Devil: Study For A Portrait Of Francis Bacon

2009-11-03T04:59:00.000-08:00

A film about Francis Bacon and his relationship with George Dyer. The plot is rather threadbare but is saved by fantastic performances by Sir Derek Jacobi and Daniel Craig. Tilda Swinton is almost unrecognisable in her role.

They're not playing nice characters, and don't excuse that or water it down. It gives the film an odd edge where I struggled to sympathise at times as much as i feel I should have/wanted to, considering the destructive nature of the central relationship.

It was a shame that the film makers couldn't use Francis Bacons artwork in this. I felt it missed something without it. A film about an Artist without his Art. John Maybury tries to make up for it in his stylistic cinemtography. Views are distorted, reflected, and nightmarish scenes are shot in the style of some of Bacon's paintings.

I suspect this will be a marmite type of film, with most people either enjoying it or finding it pretentious art twoddle. I liked it, but it does have flaws.

I heart Reverbnation Widgets

2009-10-31T14:25:00.001-07:00

Sellaband has decided to shut down it's Reverbnation Profile. The Profile which contained all the free Sellaband tracks on one nice neat widget. The widget I used for myspace. Grrrr.

I've recreated it with the few tracks that Artists themselves have uploaded, but it's nowhere near as complete.

I seem to be on a roll...

2009-10-23T15:59:00.000-07:00

3 new lenses.

How to Write Theatre Reviews
Pippa Fulton - Singer and Actress
David Hockney - Artist

I also received a lovely email saying that I had been nominated as a potential Giant Squid. I need 50 good lenses to get to that rank which is still a long way off but it really made my day :)

Landscape Photographer of the year 2009.

2009-10-19T09:17:00.000-07:00

Some simply divine photographs on the BBC website here.

Instrumental Music

2009-10-17T11:37:00.000-07:00

The Sixtyone is very good for finding instrumental pieces. Some old favourites:

Scooter Pietsch. Classical. They haven't update their profile in a while but there's some good music available.

Tim Allen. Classical. A very pretty piece that I've loved for a while.

Emancipator. Electronic. I spent ages trying to find this track to buy/download originally, but it's finally found it's way to iTunes :). This track has 6370 hearts and rising.

New Home

2009-10-17T08:25:00.000-07:00

I have 2 google email addresses, and I've switched this blog to the main one I use. I was getting fed up of constantly having to log in and out of the two accounts.

Chinese New Year Trivia

2009-10-15T14:27:00.000-07:00

A new Squidoo Len - Chinese New Year Trivia
I've been sorting out my laptop Harddrive and found an old word document with the Q&A I did for work. It was never used :(

2 Interesting Science Articles

2009-10-13T10:07:00.000-07:00

Two interesting articles from ONTD_science today.

The Collider, the Particle and a Theory About Fate...
Is the Large Hadron Collider being sabotaged by the future?
(We'll see in December when it's due to start up again.)

Vegetarian Spider discovered.
A tropical jumping spider that eats mostly plant buds has been identified, a new study says—making it the only known vegetarian out of some 40,000 spider species.
(For other Arachnophobes, there's no pictures included in the linked article.)

A couple of recent film reviews.

2009-10-13T07:37:00.000-07:00

High School Musical
50%

When I watch a Disney movie, I expect a Disney movie so I don't really get people who watch this film and then moan about it having, shock horror, the characteristics of a Disney film. It reminds me of films like The Mighty Ducks from my own tween-dom so watch this film expecting to see a Disney movie and you won't be far wrong.

This is a fun, cheerful, sometimes humourous film with a good message and sweet heart behind it. Zac Efron was decent to watch. I didn't quite buy Vanessa Hudgens in her role. The support was fine with some nice turns such as Corbin Bleu. It's directed by Kenny Ortega who has a long line of Choreographer credits to his name, including the upcoming This Is It so the dance numbers are fab.

The reason for the low mark is simply due to the production of some of the musical numbers. Some of the songs sound like they're being sung by the Chipmunks. The way some of the singing has been synced/acted is also just incredibly painful to watch. The likes of Sweeney Todd did it *so* much better.

This film has flaws, but if you want a nice feel-good movie that is safe for young kids, you won't go far wrong with this.

13 Conversations about One Thing.
70%

An interesting film that focuses on various characters in New York whose lives cross paths and have either trivial or significant consequences on them. Structured as short stories with the characters intermingling, it can be a bit confusing to keep track of the chronology of the piece, and it's easily a film you can watch a couple of times before getting the narrative down.

Due to the nature of the film, the characters are not the most fleshed out ever but the likes of Alan Arkin do great with what they have. As the film is dealing with issues such as happiness, hope, and karma, some characters do suffer from too much introspection which makes bits of the dialogue sound odd.

While the film is intriguing, the pace is much slower then similarly structured films like Love Actually. Some people write this film off as a self-indulgent piece of Art-House. It is a film that you need to pay attention to to follow, but it's well worth a look if you're prepared to make the commitment.

Book Review : Two Business Books

2009-10-12T14:51:00.000-07:00

Project Management in a Week
Mark Brown

Project Management in 7 easily digestible chunks. This books covers the basics of Project Management for anyone who wants either a refresher or a quick introduction to the subject area. It introduces Jargon in a way that is understandable to someone new, without getting in the way of experienced readers. A useful, practical, down-to-earth book. Straightforward and to the point.

It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be.
Paul Arden

This is an interesting enough book to read, but is very focused on the advertising industry. It's published by Phaidon so it's layout is more artistic then most business books and has a lot of illustrations/pictures throughout.

It includes some good ideas and reads as a pep talk to get you geared up to think anything is possible. However if you don't work in a job with briefs or have access to the creative department, it ends up reading rather hollow. Slogans without strategies to achieve the ends, except for the usual work hard, network, and exude confidence in yourself. I expected more to be honest.

Squidoo Milestone

2009-10-12T11:32:00.000-07:00

One of my Squidoo lenses has reached 100 visits in a week. To some Lensmasters this is small-fry, but I'm quite proud of my lense achievement. It's the Halloween Trivia Question Lense, so it won't last, but it's nice to see it shoot up the Lensrank at the moment :)

I finally got round to finishing a Lense yesterday that I started months ago. John Player & Sons - Theatre Series of Cigarette Cards. I can't get the ping function to work so it won't be listed on Search Engines which is frustrating. I desperately want to go and read about Victorian Theatre now, but I have such a large pile of other books to get through first :( I might do some more Lenses focused on particular Actors from that period; they're such an interesting bunch to read about :)

Beat The Devil (BMW Short Film)

2009-10-04T14:25:00.000-07:00

I recently watched this short film again and remembered how fab it is :) Clive Owen, Gary Oldman, James Brown and Marilyn Manson. Directed by Tony Scott.

The Sixty One : Music

2009-10-03T06:02:00.000-07:00

I've been spending quite a bit of time on the Sixty One recently, looking for new music. Figured I would post some favourites below :)

I'm not usually a hip hop fan but this song is soooo catchy it's ridiculous.

Laudanum Forest I know from Sellaband, and I like their style of rock music. It's blissfully different to same old stuff I listen to on Kerrang. This is the extended version of the song.

I have such a weakness for good acappella covers. I remember the good 'ole days of file sharing on the Internet and AudioGalaxy. That was such a great website for finding new music and introduced to me acappella amongst others.

I am Band is another great alt/rock band that are on T61. I suspect I would never have found them via the old ways or even via myspace.

Blacking out is pretty weird.

2009-09-16T14:22:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a bizarre week to date. I collapsed twice on Sunday and went to hospital to get checked over. First time I've ever blacked out, and I managed to do it twice in about 15 minutes ;) I was taken to hospital by ambulance. It's the first time I've ever been in one. Hopefully it will be at least another 26 years until I repeat the experience. The emergency department was actually very calm and quiet, not what I thought it would be like at all (i.e. 'Casualty'). I guess it was too early in the day for the drunks to start arriving. The ward I was moved to was much, *much* noisier. Painfully so. I woke up during the night every couple of hours by either someone arriving, someone being moved out or at one point, a crazy woman talking about her f-ing social security, arguing with nurses not to talk to her 'like that in her own house' and setting some alarm off.

Despite having various blood tests, scans and generally being prodded and poked, no one seems to have a clue what caused the black outs. My blood pressure wasn't really low enough when the paramedics checked it to make me ill. The Emergency Department Doctor thought I might have an infection (I felt warm to her) but they could find no evidence to back it up. I failed the D-Dimer test for blood clotting but they couldn't find one on the scan. The ECG looked fine, the Chest X-ray normal. Basically, I have to wait and see if I black out again. Personally, I'm just glad to be out of the hospital and back in my nice, quiet bed with my laptop (oh how I missed the Internet!)

My veins are also apparently quite small so I now look like a junkie with bruises on my elbows/arms and needle marks from several failed attempts to draw blood. I'll be wearing long-sleaved tops for a few days, and trying to ignore the hypochrondriac part of my brain that's convinced I'll keel over at any moment...

The Promise

2009-09-10T17:48:00.000-07:00

Good news today, I've just agreed to help on a show in November called "The Promise" by Aleksei Arbuzov. It's a Russian play which starts during the Siege of Leningrad. It follows three teenagers, Lika, Marat and Leonidik over the following 17 years. It's a fab play with the relationship between the three characters. A difficult one though for actors who need to convincingly age 17 years over the three Acts. Rama Young Actors are performing it so three teenagers will be cast. It'll be an interesting production to watch and I'm looking forward to it immensely.

Before then, I'm prompting "Abigail's Party" at the Lace Market Theatre. It's a wonderful cast and I doubt I'll be needed to be fair!

Book Review : Ancient Wisdom, Present Day Healing by Barrie Anson

2009-09-10T16:16:00.000-07:00

This is a very interesting little book that covers various spiritual-based topics such as Spiritual Healing, Karma and Reincarnation as well as complementary medicine such as Homeopathy and Nutritional Therapy. It's suitable for people with little background knowledge and is actually a great introduction to some of the topics. I don't agree with everything that is written, but it certainly gives you food for thought if you're open-minded. A highly enjoyable and uplifting read.

A couple of recently made Squidoo lenses.

2009-09-10T13:21:00.000-07:00

One is about a sweet little cartoon series by Aardman Animation called The Presentators. I can't embed the video on Blogger, but the pilot and several episodes are available to watch. They last just over a minute each.

Gobblynne Animation created a couple of my favourite music videos, so I made a lens. As an example of Katy Davis's work, her showreel is below. Enjoy :)

New Video from Ellie Williams

2009-09-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

Directed and painted by Nigel Van Wieck. This is the video for the Ellie Williams song "Firefly" from her forthcoming album "Unseen". It's one of the few albums that I'm really looking forward to. Her music is a mix of Acoustic, Folk and Pop and she has a very beautiful and soothing voice. (Think Sarah McLachlan / Shawn Colvin). You can hear more on Ellie's Myspace.

Amazing Collaborative Music Video from Japanese band Sour

2009-07-05T17:04:00.000-07:00

A very cool video by the Japanese Band Sour. The cast is a bunch of their fans from around the world, who were recorded with just a webcam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfBlUQguvyw

'Freak' / Myspace - Be on the Soundtrack

2009-07-05T17:01:00.000-07:00

Myspace UK are looking for Music for one of their "interactive dramas". They're rather sparse on the details, but for anyone who wants to upload a song or two, it should only take a couple of minutes.

The 'Freak' Blog with a few details - http://blogs.myspace.com/freak

The 'Freak' Myspace Page

So What - 3 live songs on 3FM

2009-07-01T16:24:00.000-07:00

So What were on Dutch radio station 3FM and performed three songs. Mp3 versions of them are currently available :)

Keep on Running

As Long as I'm Sinning

Puzzle Me (Cover)

Windows and Reverbnation give away 1000 songs

2009-07-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

Windows and Reverbnation have joined up to give away a bunch of new music.

It's supported by visual adverts but I've just downloaded a song and had it playing in the background so it's made zero difference.

There's a mix of known indie artists like Slightly Stoopid and The Lemonheads with less known bands. A fantastic place to find some new Artists.

I'm a big fan of Acoustic Rock and "The Kin". 'Animals' is available to download which I highly recommend.

Kerrang Magazine Free Gig Listings

2009-07-01T15:19:00.000-07:00

Kerrang Magazine have sent out a blog about their free gig listings.
http://kerrangmagazine.tumblr.com/

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Want your band’s shows listed in Kerrang! Magazine’s FREE Gig Listing section?
Read below!

-Please send only rock/metal/punk/hardcore etc listings suitable for Kerrang! magazine to gigs@kerrang.com

-No Attachments!
-For free inclusion, send complete listings details!

Please include the following info for each show:

1. Date
2. Venue
3. Phone number (venue/tickets)
4. City
5. Band (+ genre)
6. and support bands!

-Please send in band names with CASE CORRECT spelling.
-Deadline for inclusion us 15 days previous to K! issue dates.

Thank you!
Kerrang! Magazine.

zzzzz

2009-07-01T15:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I've been wrestling with another bout of imsomnia which generally leaves me rather listless and knackered. Not the sort of mood where I want to write Blog posts (or anything else for that matter!). Nottingham is also in the middle of a heatwave. It's a couple of degrees too warm for me at the moment; I like the mid-twenties. It should cool down by the weekend and hopefully I can get back to being more productive!

Amazon Free Music inc Spinal Tap, Mars Volta, Prodigy

2009-06-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

Amazon UK give away a few free music tracks and the listings have recently changed.

The £0.00 priced mp3s can be found here

1. I Know - The Proclaimers (I Know)
2. Apparently - Anti-Pop Consortium (Apparently)
3. Searching - Speech Debelle (Searching)
4. Here Comes Your Man - Pixies (Demos)
5. Professor Pickles - Reverend And The Makers (Professor Pickles)
6. Ambivalence Avenue Sampler - Bibio (Ambivalence Avenue Sampler)
7. Invaders Must Die - The Prodigy (Invaders Must Die)
8. Cotopaxi - The Mars Volta (Cotopaxi (E-Single))
9. (Listen to the) Flower People (2009) - Spinal Tap ((Listen to the) Flower People (2009))
10. Alcoholics Unanimous - Art Brut Art Brut vs Satan
11. London - The Rumble Strips (London)

Kiva update

2009-06-18T15:32:00.000-07:00

Image via CrunchBase

Hmm,

I previously mentioned about Kiva offering Loans to US Businesses. My final decision for now is not to support US loans when there are loans from Developing countries that need help as well. I have to do what I feel is for the best, and folks in Developing Countries have far fewer opportunities the those of us in the Western World are blessed with, so my limited funds will go to them first.

I have not been the only person 'chewing the cud' about this issue and it was with some surprise I received an email from Kiva with the subject line "1 Pissed off Kiva lender has left the following message for the Mensa Lending Team:". A Group on Kiva has been set up for people who oppose this move into the US. I've been watching the numbers for the last hour or so, and it's slowly but surely gaining members. It currently stands at 166 members after less then a day.

I do not oppose the US loans, and it was an interesting PR move, but the US Loans are of the lowest priority to me. I won't be joining the group as I'm neutral on the subject, seeing both sides. I will be watching it with interest.

I have enough repayments to make 2 x $25 loans today. The money went to Maria Mukiala, who runs a Book Store in Nigeria and Bello Tchonda who sells cloth in Togo.

Patrick Wolf on Bandstocks

2009-06-17T14:28:00.000-07:00

Patrick Wolf via last.fm

I'm a fan of crowd-sourcing and so I've been keeping an eye on Bandstocks, a UK version of one. I've invested in Patrick Wolf as I'm a fan of his anyway and I hoped it would be interesting to see a 'known' indie Artist use one of these Platforms.

He released his latest album on June 1st and this new article highlights how he has done:
http://top40-charts.com/news/Pop-Rock/Bandstocks-Hits-Albums-Charts-With-New-Patrick-Wolf-Album/49276.html

A few points I thought I would mention,
I was keeping an eye on the Bandstocks page, and the deadline was extended by a Month.
It closed a week or two before he released his album, so I do wonder how much of the money has gone on recording it, unless he paid all the fees/wages afterwards.
With less then a day to go on fundraising, he still had another 30/35K to achieve if I recall correctly, it was a lot of money anyway.
His last album reached #46 so while hitting the top 50 is great news, it's not really a breakthrough.

Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic Patrick Wolf has released an album via crowd-sourcing and the album is doing really well, I'm just completely fed up with reading Spin and Bullshit today.

The Online Artist Report Card

2009-06-14T10:32:00.000-07:00

http://www.waycooljnr.com.au/2009/06/11/the-online-artist-report-card/

An interesting article on what the minimum online requirement is for Bands. I have a hard time keeping track of all my online profiles, it must be very time-consuming for an Artist.

Squidoo Earnings for April 2009

2009-06-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

Image via CrunchBase

I don't make lenses to be money winners, I write them to share information so Squidoo is never going to give any sort of income above a few pence. I remember when I started that I looked around to guage what sort of money would actually be made, so here is a breakdown of mine for information. The earnings run 6 weeks behind. The money I was paid in the middle of June, was for Lenses operating in the month of April:

BSY Course - Spiritual Healing. Lesson 1 Overview and Further Study.	$0.07
Francis Rodino - Alt. Rock Singer-songwriter	$0.07
Lace Market Theatre, Nottingham	$0.07
Daniel Ward-Murphy - UK Alt. Folk	$0.07
Second Person - Trip Hop Band	$0.07
BulletProof Messenger - Rock Band	$0.07
So What - Rock Band from the Netherlands	$0.07
Julia Marcell - Polish Classical Punk Musician	$0.07
Easter Trivia Questions and Answers	$0.07
'The Imp' - Comedy Animation	$0.07
Cubworld - Island Music	$0.51
11 lenses and groups	$1.20

The lenses are ranked into tiers. The lowest tiers get nothing, while the more popular ones share a larger amount of the income. My lenses that ranked high enough to gain a split of the income all received $0.07 in earnings. Cubworld's Lense did so well due to someone buying a copy of his album via it. Thank you mysterious benefactor!

www.xe.com kindly tells me $1.20 = £0.72 at the moment.

New Audio Engineering Magazine - Audio!

2009-06-13T16:17:00.000-07:00

I know the basics of Sound Design/Engineering from my Theatre work, but a lot of magazines on the subject are either too advanced or too focussed on just Hardware to keep my attention. There is now a new magazine, Audio!, from the University of London which seems pitched towards people like me :)

http://www.cs4fn.org/music/

All the articles are available on the website and as a pdf.

Fixing feedback with software

The Colour of Music

Soundbite

Punk robots learn to pogo

Rock DJ 101

Cyborg Music

On Track: Follow the Beat

Beatboxing with a very different voice

Say have you heard about the one about the McGurk effect?

Try Daisyphone for yourself

How Madonna crashed the Internet

Play Air Guitar

Mathematical Ringtones

Listen to your spreadsheet

All that Jazz

Berkleemusic Arrives in the UK

2009-06-12T01:32:00.000-07:00

"In preparation for our upcoming summer term on June 29th, Berkleemusic has expanded our reach to the United Kingdom with a new online music scholarship program for UK-based musicians. Berkleemusic will award 50 scholarships over the next five years in the names of music legends Sir George Martin, Jeff Beck, Paul Oakenfold, Simon Napier-Bell, and Steve Vai.
"Music is a wonderful thing and something that I have been able to enjoy all my life," said Berkleemusic UK Scholarship honoree Sir George Martin. "Getting access to a great musical education can only be a good thing and now with this initiative, UK-based students are going to be able to access Berklee's remarkable resources directly. I am proud to be a patron of this innovative program and look forward to seeing it and the students flourish in the years to come.""

More information at http://www.berkleemusic.co.uk/scholarships

Kiva expands into the US.

2009-06-10T12:08:00.000-07:00

I made two loans via Kiva today. For anyone who doesn't know what that is, it's a website that gathers funds for MicroLoans for Businesses, usually in what used to be termed Second and Third World countries. (Sorry, I can't keep track of what the correct PC terminology is.) Lenders make no interest on the money, the $25 (hopefully) keeps going round the system being lent and repaid until you take it out. It means people who have little or no access to affordable credit don't have to go to Loan Sharks. The agencies who distribute the Kiva Loans put interest on them for running costs, but they have to be kept to reasonable levels. They also don't threaten/commit violence if someone is behind on their payments.

I'd been meaning to add some money into the system anyway, and when I saw that they were now offering Kiva loans in the US I was intrigued. On the one hand, they're obviously correct that poverty is everywhere. On the other, I wonder if the focus should be on the Developing World. Are US banks really that hard up/greedy that they only offer small loans (a few $K seems to be what most of the US Loans require) at extortionate rates? Are the Businesses who need Kiva Loans viable if they've been turned down by the banks? The economic situation in the US is very different to the likes of Cambodia or Ghana where the Businesses requesting Kiva Loans don't have ready access to credit.

Offering US loans has been a good PR move. The First Lady of California, Maria Shriver has been promoting Kiva and has her own lending team. However Bill Clinton and Oprah have lent their support to Kiva in the past. Does the fact that it's other Americans requesting help really make that much of a difference? Or is the media in the US more interested because it's all US based?

It's an interesting idea to offer Kiva Loans within the US, and some thing I need to wrestle with a bit more to make my mind up on.

http://www.kiva.org/about/inside has more information on the US expansion.

In the end I lent to two American Businesses, partly to see how it turns out if I'm honest. Serena in California who is continuing her training in Healthcare/Fitness and Elizabeth in New York who is upgrading her Beauty Salon.

My Lender Profile.

Other Articles on the US Expansion:
Techcrunch
ReadWriteWeb

New Squidoo Lense up

2009-06-07T10:03:00.000-07:00

Bim - http://www.squidoo.com/bimmusic

A music Lense about the Trip-hop/Pop band.

Sellaband - New Artists I'm interested in.

2009-06-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

Radaid - Unfortunately I have doubts that this band will get far on Sellaband. The Believer base for World / Eclectic / Cross-Genre Beautiful music just isn't that big. Unless they can pull in lots of outside believers, I think they'll go the same way as Celine Wadier or Zephyr and get stuck low down in the Charts.

If you're interested in their music, iTunes UK, Amazon.co.uk and CDbaby all failed me. Amazon.com has some older albums. I'm still trying to find 'l'intent'.

Nikki Murray - Acoustic melodic Guitar / Piano pop music. This is Summer Twilight, relaxing with a glass of wine, watching the stars come out music. Nikki Murray has won various guitar and songwriting awards already, he just seems to be an artist who is currently flying under the radar. It'll be interesting to see if he stays there.

The Tracks on the profile are available on iTunes.

ChupaCabra - Australian Punk Metal band. Only formed this year but seem eager to record via Sellaband. Several demo's are up and they sound great. Friends of Vegas Dragons so they're friends of mine :)

Free Music

2009-06-06T05:29:00.000-07:00

Itunes is giving a free video away each week until the end of July via Facebook. This week is Kasabian and 'Underdog'.

http://www.facebook.com/iTunesEU
and click on the boxes tab.

---

Clash Music album in association with Fly53 featuring: The Prodigy, Phoenix, Fleet Foxes, Peter, Bjorn & John, Grizzly Bear, Simian Mobile Disco and others.

You have to give your name/email address so I expect I have now subscribed to their newsletter

http://www.clashmusic.com/sounds-of-the-summer

Recent Music Videos I like from Sellaband (Alt Pop)

2009-06-05T12:46:00.000-07:00

Julia Marcell - Night of the Living Dead

Daniel Ward-Murphy - She's a Knockout

So What - Keep on Running